HR Is No Different Then Marketing!

Like Marketing, Communications, PR, Sales and any other part of a business or initiative… we are always trying to figure the R.O.I! Executives and line managers are constantly asking for how you plan on measuring and showing it. Many times they ask you

“So What”s the ROI” or “How are you going to measure this?”

I am often asked with the person on the other end having know idea themselves what or how to measure?

When You Have No Idea What You Want To Measure

When people do not know what should be accomplished, R.O.I. is often M.I.A. This is especially true when people don’t know what they want, understand how the end result should look, or are clueless on what to measure for success.

Outside of cost and sales over time, the metrics and results we try to pinpoint for R.O.I. are often hard to do. It doesn’t matter what field you are in. R.O.I. is a term that is nice to hear but often very hard to prove!

Yeah it is hard to do in Training, HR, and OD - but don’t get it twisted – it is also hard to do in any other field. People just assume that the results directly connect to a sale, operations being cut, or an initiative being launched; but really the true connected is often someones opinion rather than based on the fact.

Ask Anyone

Don’t believe me… Ask any decision-maker that is a high-level manager and they would tell you that what their unit did is what increased the sales and productivity. Then ask them, can you show me how you did it… that will tell you more!

What do you think? Asking for what you want is very different from getting what you ask for!

We all have stuff that holds us back. But sometimes all you need is a little inspiration to do better! To be better than you are now.

All you have to do, is do it. It’s Monday. Happy Monday!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SbXgQqbOoU&feature=player_embedded

I was listening in on HRHappyHour last night and the topic was ‘Tomorrow’s HR Today’. Episode 65 is live now. Check it out. Now that statement could mean many things to different people within the profession. It was a great discussion and while some of us may believe that the conversation within our field tends to go in cycles, meaning we talk about some of the same stuff just in different ways, I think it is important to have those discussions. At the same time, we need to move towards the goal while we are talking. As Alec Baldwin’s character states in Glengarry Glenn Ross to ”always-be-closing” we need to constantly be reaching for a higher level of what we need to be instead of just looking at it from a static place.

Which brings me to my reason for writing this. Some questions were raised around Human Resources professionals and us as the leadership within the field on whether we truly understand the “Drivers” of the business. What is the P&L, the products and services and more importantly the “WHY” the business is in business?

A great quote from last night:
“We don’t need to be business partners. We need to be business people!”

I have to admit that I have not always been very business acumeny…. but over the years I have built more of an understanding whether it be by personal interest or out of actual career survival mode.

So with these thoughts I pose some questions in the form of polls. Feel free to give your thoughts. Would love to see what you have think!

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To Lie or not lie, that is the question?

Image: TfD

While I do not think this is the best approach in any circumstance, I believe we see more and more of people taking the “grey-area” road rather than being truly truthful in their interview process. This also goes for employers and their hiring reporesentatives.

It doesn’t matter if you are a fresh graduate, mid-level employee with a couples years experience trying to move up or a senior executive wanted to hit the C-level:

People lie in their interviews, no matter how big or small.

Companies lie in their interviews, no matter how big or small.

But don’t you think that the recruiting process, coupled with the current tight market and economic downturn just encourages people to use up their “white” lies even more?

What do you think. Ever catch a candidate | employer in a lie?